Munster's big game brings out the ticket hunters

At last Tuesday's queues in Thomond Park, Limerick, for the 1,200 precious tickets for tomorrow's Heineken Cup clash between Munster and Biarritz, a garda was heard to advise the expectant crowds that they would be better off playing the Lotto.

For the 5,000 people expecting some kind of loaves-and-fishes miracle, spending the £10 or £15 that would get them into the ground for what is, after all, a mere quarterfinal, seemed a more attractive option than becoming a millionaire.

The talk of the match is astonishing even for a city with nine rugby clubs and a tradition which goes back to the city's British garrison status. Everywhere fans are hustling to get into the Shannon club's grounds, the gates of which were wide open on Tuesday but which attracted only a few crows and three officials carrying out maintenance in the morning gloom.

By Thursday only 13,300 were going to be allowed in, but an extra 500 places were sanctioned by the fire officer and were quickly raffled off by the clubs.

Back in the queue, the Limerick Labour TD, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, took her place with the masses, but to no avail. Anybody who arrived in the queue after 6.10 a.m. faced disappointment.

Like many others, Ms O'Sullivan criticised the allocation of two tickets per person. It had been reduced from four but it still meant, she said, that 600 people who stayed at home got tickets.

Bobby Molloy said he was asking Des O'Malley, while everybody was asking Heineken, which has sponsored the competition with £20 million and was rumoured to have 3,000 tickets.

"As part of the Heineken contract, we get 50 tickets per game," Shane Hoyne, brand manager, Ireland, said. The company purchased another 120 tickets. "We did not by any means try and monopolise the situation," he added.

After a similar fiasco over tickets last year, the anger at the treatment of fans in the Thomond Park queue will be slow to subside.

Many people have commented on the presence of the Pairc na nGael GAA ground a few hundred yards away on the Ennis Road which can hold 45,000. "Why could an offer not be forthcoming?" asks the former Ireland and Garryowen player, Tony Ward. "What Munster have achieved for Irish sport transcends all sporting divides."

But the players might be unhappy about moving from a ground where they have never lost a game. Despite the relatively small number of spectators, playing in Thomond Park is unique.

"It is a very intimate little ground, it is intimidating for the opposition and it brings the Munster players closer to their supporters," Mr Ward said.

A plaque commemorates the greatest achievement, the win against the New Zealand All Blacks in 1978, although Mr Ward, the top scorer for Munster on that occasion, compares the team's recent performances to that success.

In a change to the schedules published in The Irish Times Magazine for tomorrow, RTE 1 has cancelled the screening of its two afternoon films and will instead show the match live, with coverage beginning at 2.20 p.m.